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How To Structure Reality

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." -Tom Waits

Reality has to do as much with the structure that is defined as it does with the assumptions that we make about that structure. That's a pretty dense sentence. Read it over a few times.

Reality consists as much with the structure that's defined as it does with the assumptions we make about that structure.

With this one sentence, if you can get it and use it, your ability to persuade will skyrocket forward as it begins to come out into your behaviors and language.

That statement is even truer when it comes to words and what they imply or presuppose. I want to give you now a two part major persuasion truism. This has formed the basis of my work for many, many years, clear back before I could even articulate it. And that is: People might believe what they are told, but they will always believe their own conclusions.

Think about it. This is important: People might believe what they are told, but they will always believe their own conclusions.

You might be able to tell someone something and they believe you and maybe they'll go along with what you're saying. However, if you help them to conclude on their own what you want them to conclude, that is going to be a solid belief. Part two of this truism is, they will form their conclusions as much from what you *don't* say, as what you do say.

This is something to memorize and live by. People might believe what they are told, but they will always believe their own conclusions and they will form those conclusions as much from what you don't say, as what you do.

The key then is to learn how to structure what you say such that what you don't say communicates more powerfully than what you do say. This will make people come to the conclusion that you want them to have on their own.

The following is a linguistic category called Spoonerisms. This illustrates the idea that people might believe what they are told but they will always believe their own conclusions. Spoonerism are often thought to be a slip of the tongue but often they are a play on words. The example of 'Go and shake a tower' might be a funny and more subtle way of saying to someone that they smell bad. When you hear 'go and shake a tower' the brain automatically fills in the statement that was unsaid, 'Go and take a shower.'

You hear the actual words I'm saying, but your brain reverses them to make sense of it.

However, you had to hear the opposite, you had to hear that, and you did it on your own. And that's what I'm saying when I say people might believe what you tell them but they will always believe their own conclusions and they will form those conclusions as much from what you don't say as what you do.

Article Source: http://www.dummiesguideto.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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